The countdown to the start of the 2013 World Superbike championship continues… The season’s opening races are set to get underway this Friday at the Phillip Island circuit in Australia and Team SBK Ducati Alstare and its riders Carlos Checa and Ayrton Badovini are fully prepared for this exciting challenge.

Having completed a series of very useful tests in recent days, the team
is busy making final preparations to the new 1199 Panigale bikes ahead
of this weekend's action. Both riders will take the opportunity to rest
up over the next two days, with Carlos recuperating from an intestinal
problem and Ayrton from a hematoma near the liver that resulted from
last week's crash.

The two Ducati Alstare flag bearers are
enthusiastic about racing on the Australian track once more. Checa has
been very successful at the Island in recent years, winning four of the
last six races while Badovini has had less luck on Australian soil; a
variety of technical issues during Superbike races have meant that his
best result to date was a fourteenth place finish in 2011.

Carlos
Checa: ‘I've always got on very well at Phillip Island and we have good
references here that will be very useful. Of course, the race is going
to be very hard and competitive and we don't really know how the tyre
wear is going to be. It will be definitely be harder once the tyres are
worn and that will affect the lap times. There are still some areas on
the track where we struggle, like turn 3, and you have to have a lot of
confidence going into turn 1 as it is so fast. It's hard to say what's
going to happen in the race, but for sure a top six is possible
depending on the conditions. After today, my aim is to be challenging
the leaders.'

Ayrton
Badovini: ‘Everything depends on how I feel and it's too early to say
what's going to happen on race day. If my condition is ok and I can push
hard then I think I can be in the top 10 at least. I think we have a
good base setting and everything we do at the moment seems to be taking
us in the right direction. This will be my first race on a twin cylinder
bike, but I know that this circuit generally suits Ducati bikes, so I'm
hoping to have a good couple of races.'

Experience

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